Starting the Loop Back

August 10-12: Skyline Park, Napa, CA

We had a hard time finding a place near San Francisco, but eventually found a park with an available spot in Napa Valley. Our spot was in an area separate from the RVs and tents. A few camper vans joined us. (Many campsites are geared towards either large RVs or tents, and they don't always know what to do with us or other small trailers or camper vans.) The campsite had a lot of things going on, including a disk golf course, archery range, horse boarding and courses, and a native pants garden. 

We went in to do some wine tasting in Napa. Most of the wineries require reservations, but the city itself has some tasing rooms. We had a nice dinner in town and then had some wine while we listened to a local musician. Someone in the audience surprisingly (and anonymously) paid for everyone! There is a lot of money in that town. We found an alternative for wine tasting at the Napa Town and Country Fair. $15 for tasting and they were generous with the pours! No more free tastings and the wineries cost $40 a person and up for their tasting experiences. I guess what I learned was to experiment with wine from your local liquor store, find what you like and when you get bored with that, try some others. The beauty of driving the winding roads through wine country was a nice experience.

In San Francisco, we met up with our niece Alice where we had a Korean lunch and visited some parts of SF that we had not seen before, including Japantown. She was a good host! Afterwords we went to the Fisherman's Wharf and had a nice dinner. Big crowds at the wharf. The fog is amazing on the upper coast, and from Carmel to Oregon the weather was colder than you would think. Sadly, we were too wimpy to swim, but did enjoy walking into the waves.

August 13-14: Elkhorn Ranch, Elkhorn, CA

Our plan was to head east after SF, but we decided we needed more ocean time, so we headed south of SF and found a goat ranch that was hosting campers (HipCamp has many opportunities like this). There were many goats, plus some sheep, a few pigs, chickens and a few turkeys. Not to mention vegetables and other plants. We were in a nice grove.

We went to Carmel and enjoyed the rolling coast and a nice dinner. Carmel is a charming seaside town with upper class pricing.

The next day we went on a "Elkhorn Slough Safari Trip", where we explored the slough on a pontoon boat with a naturalist. We saw many sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters and many different birds. The slough is an interesting and important ecosystem.

Elkhorn also has a large power plant, and the towers went right over our camping area.

August 15-16: Hardin Flat Road, Stanislaus National Forest, CA

We found a great boondocking spot here, large and full of pines. This is our 2 night spot for Yosemite. All of the west coast is so dusty, I had a tank top on for one night in this spot, and when I washed under my arms with a wet wipe, the wipe was full of dirt! We had neighbors from Czech Republic, one morning they woke up early to find a bear right by their van, it started walking towards our camp and he shouted and it turned direction and loped away! We also found a stash of massive pine cones.

Yosemite is awesome with its granite peaks, tall waterfalls and fast running rivers. We swam in a clear lake and watched climbers reach the summit of a mountain.

 

August 17: Lower Lee Vining Campground, Inyo National Forest, CA

We came here to take in Mono Lake. I call this spot a show-stopper, multi show-stoppers is one spot! The mountains, the clouds, the tufa towers, and the display of weather all around the lake. The pictures actually do give a glimpse of this lake's wonder.

Mono Lake is more salty than the ocean. As the lake water level dropped over the years, towers of calcium-carbonate, formed by the interaction of fresh water springs and alkaline lake water, peaked out from the lake. These towers are called tufa. The lake is over 1 million years old and has no outlet.

                                                                                 

August 18-19: North Las Vegas Inn & Suites, North Las Vegas, NV

The trip into Nevada was long and flat. The interstate runs through the valleys of mountain ranges. Strange, almost ghost town-ish cities are dotted here and there. Again with the dust, showing up in puffs from the wind or as a cloud of white from the dune buggies that ride the flats and foot hills.

One city along the way bragged about its "famous" Clown Motel, sitting beside an abandoned cemetary.

Our agenda for staying in a hotel for 2 nights is to shower, sit in the hot tub, maybe swim, do laundry, catch up on e-mails, get the car's oil changed and live a large life, before heading back into our teardrop cocoon in the wilderness. Ahh! Fresh linens- for real, this time!